The plan was to sign it Thursday afternoon. By Thursday night, it was off the table. The AI industry just dodged what could have been the first formal federal review of its biggest models.
President Trump shelved an executive order that would have set up a federal review for new AI models. He told reporters he didn't like what he was seeing in the draft. POLITICO published the full document on Friday.
The seven-page draft would have let the U.S. government look at new AI models from firms like OpenAI, Anthropic, and others. The reviews could happen up to 90 days before the models hit the public.
That kind of pre-launch peek would be a first for the industry. Reviews would be voluntary on paper. But the order leaned on the National Security Agency to flag which models needed a closer look.
The Treasury Department would have helped AI firms patch up holes in their systems. The attorney general would have gone after bad actors using AI for fraud or other crimes.
David Sacks, Trump's former AI czar, told POLITICO he worried the voluntary reviews would slow U.S. firms down.
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White House staff had briefed major tech firms about the order earlier in the week. Some of those firms pushed back hard on anything that could delay product launches.
Trump's stated reason for pulling the order was speed. "I didn't like certain aspects of it," he told reporters. He worried the rules might slow U.S. work in AI. The call came just hours before the planned signing.
The White House has not said what changes are being made. It also hasn't said when a new version might come back. That leaves the AI industry in limbo.
The big AI firms - Microsoft, Google, Meta, OpenAI, and Anthropic - just dodged the first real federal check on their models. For now.
The question is whether the next draft will loosen the rules or just rebrand them. Investors holding AI-linked stocks should watch for the next version of this order. Any pre-launch review process would slow product cycles across the sector. The market hasn't priced that in yet.
The bigger picture matters too. Trump came into office promising to roll back AI rules, not add new ones. The fact that even a watered-down review came this close to a signing shows the White House is feeling the pressure.
State-level AI bills are also building. California and New York both have AI safety rules in the works. If the federal order keeps stalling, states may set the rules instead.
That's the worst case for the AI firms. A patchwork of state laws is harder to deal with than one federal rule. Tech firms have lobbied hard to keep that from happening.
For now, the order is on ice. The signing date is open. The pressure isn't going away.
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